No Time

Walking along the street one day, I was distributing little gospel books to the persons I met on the way. Most received them very kindly. Only one refused me. As I offered the little book, he asked what it was.

“A little paper which tells the way of salvation,” I replied.

“Well, really,” he said, “life is so short, and time is so full, that I cannot stop to read such things.”

I was left speechless by such an awful excuse, and before a suitable answer came to me, he was gone.

“Life so short!” I thought as I went on. That’s so. And what follows?

Death and Judgment!!

“Time so full”—with what? With everything that shuts God out!!

Reader, listen to the words of the Lord Jesus concerning one who, like this man, found life too short and time too full to think about God and his soul:

“The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.” Was there any hope there? “Beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot: neither can they pass to us” (Luke 16:19-31).

Beloved reader, O, be wise in time. We who have found in Christ the living water which quenches all thirst, which sets the conscience at rest forever, we can still “pass to you,” and beseech you to drink before it is too late. Think of the folly of crowding time with what you have to leave behind! Think of the stupendous thought in the word—

Eternity.

Think of your sins. Think of the holiness of God, who cannot have sin in His presence. Think of the day when you must give account of yourself to Him.

Then think of the grace He has shown in sending His only begotten Son into this world “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Think on these things, accept Him as your Saviour, and you will find this short life to be but the beginning of a blessed eternity, and time so full of things which perish not, that the things which perish will be compelled to take their place in the far background.

“Behold, now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

—Selected